Virtually all menses subsequent to ovulation are associated with some pelvic discomfort, if only for the first few hours of bleeding. Such discomfort is due to myometrial contraction, which is an essential part of the menstrual cycle. While some discomfort and/or pain is normally associated with myometrial contraction, in some women the pain can become quite severe. Discomfort may also be present in the days preceding onset of menstruation.
Dysmenorrhea refers to excessive and often incapacitating pain at the time of menstruation. While various physiological factors can cause such pain (such as congenital uterovaginal malformation, pelvic infection, tumor, endometriosis, and other pelvic pathology), often no discernible cause for the pain can be identified. In such cases, it is believed that dysmenorrhea is likely caused by an exaggeration of the biochemical events leading to the synthesis of prostaglandin and related uterotonic metabolites and their action on the myometrium, and/or by an alteration in the women's response to the genuine discomfort of myometrial contraction.
Treatment of dysmenorrhea is typically accomplished by rest and local application of heat. In more severe cases, analgesics and sedatives are sometimes prescribed. Prostaglandin inhibitors may also be helpful, but often have systemic side effects. In cases were the episodes are recurrent and the degree of incapacity significant, a low-dose oral contraception therapy is often used (such as a combination of estrogen and progestin). Such therapy is believed to reduce the amount of prostaglandin precursors present in the endometrium at the end of the menstrual cycle and decrease the volume of blood lost during menses, thus reducing myometrial contractions.
While a limited number of techniques are presently available for reducing the discomforting symptoms associated with menses, such as pain, there is a need in the art for additional and improved compositions and methods for this purpose. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.